How about a wolverine with a Yooper on his butt?
Posted on 10/18/2005 6:10:07 PM PDT by devane617
A majority of Republican voters favor an immigration plan that would allow illegal immigrants to apply for temporary work visas and have a path to permanent residency, a poll released Monday found.
The poll suggests that the party's rank-and-file are not divided on immigration the way their leaders in Congress are, said GOP pollster Ed Goeas, president of The Tarrance Group, which conducted the survey.
"Republican voters are, in fact, not split on this," he said. "It is clear that (they) strongly favor a comprehensive immigration reform plan that combines the stick of tighter borders and tougher enforcement with the carrot of a path to citizenship."
The poll showed that 72 percent of likely Republican voters favored a plan that would include increased border security, allow current illegal immigrants to apply for temporary worker permits, and provide them with a multi-year path to citizenship of they meet certain criteria such as living crime free, learning English and paying taxes.
"Republican voters understand that enforcement-alone will not fix the broken status quo," said Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank that sponsored the poll. The institute favors a temporary worker plan.
The survey also found that 84 percent of likely Republican voters said that it would be impossible to deport the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants currently living in the United States.
Steve Camarota, research director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that supports stronger border controls, said that questions in the poll were long and designed to get a positive response through the use of words such as "earned legalization," and "illegal workers" instead of "illegal immigrants."
When Republicans are asked a straight-forward question like, "Do you think illegals should be given citizenship?" the answer is overwhelmingly no, he said.
The poll - conducted from Oct. 2 through Oct. 5 - included interviews with 800 likely Republican voters and has a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Tuesday examining various immigration plans and the Bush administration will weigh in with testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Labor Secretary Elaine Chao.
Both were scheduled to appear before the committee in July, but cancelled, prompting the chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., to say that he would proceed with legislation with or without White House input.
Two major temporary worker programs have been introduced in Congress.
A proposal by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., would create two new visa categories for immigrant workers, who could remain in the United States for up to six years.
Illegal immigrants at the time the legislation goes into effect, and their spouses and children, would be allowed to apply for one of the visas as long as they show a work history, a clear criminal record, meet English and civics requirements, and pay a fine. The plan also offers a path to permanent residency and citizenship for the workers.
A competing proposal - by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz. - includes tough border enforcement measures such as hiring 10,000 more border patrol guards, and requires illegal immigrants to return to their country of origin within five years before applying as temporary workers.
Cornyn said Monday that the Senate would move forward with a comprehensive immigration bill shortly after the Christmas holiday. Proponents had been hopeful that Congress would act this year, but Cornyn said that the response to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, as well as two Supreme Court nominations, closed the window for the immigration overhaul.
Cornyn also said that senators would not allow a bill to pass that only includes tougher border-control measures.
"Enforcement alone will not solve the problem." he said.
The poll showed that 72 percent of likely Republican voters favored a plan that would include increased border security, allow current illegal immigrants to apply for temporary worker permits, and provide them with a multi-year path to citizenship of they meet certain criteria such as living crime free, learning English and paying taxes...
FYI...
I favor enforcing our laws, nothing less will do.
It is a lot easier to fake a poll than manipulate an election. State a poll result and presto! The will of the people is done. Right.
I don't buy anything less than immediate securing of the Borders, period!
bull pucky.
Do you believe this?
The poll showed that 72 percent of likely Republican Mexican voters ...
The Tarrence Group did a similar push poll on the same topic back in February or March and not surprisingly got the same result. A skilled (but unscrupulous) pollster can write questions to illicit whatever responses they want.
We'll probably have to hear quite a bit about this poll from the Shamnesty types but you can be pretty certain it is BS. If they had any confidence in their position they would have done an honest poll.
"Republican voters understand that enforcement-alone will not fix
The survey also found that 84 percent of likely Republican voters said that it would be impossible to deport
Well, I havent taken a poll of my friends, but I'll bet solid money that none of them were cited...
This entire article is suspect at best amd an out-right lie at worst.
I'm getting real tired of just about everybody in DC at this point.
I believe it. I figure 50% of Republican voters are not informed or apathetic about the issue. They likely will not feel strongly one way or the other. The other 50% is either pro or con illegal immigration to varying degrees.
I say pro-illegals because of the way the debate is always framed here. I am not for illegal immigration, but I see little point in removing an illegal who is holding down a job and not commiting crimes.
A comprehensive approach that includes work permits and increased border security is good for most Republican voters...just not most Freepers.
I gotta ask...What is a workable solution? Don't tell me rounding up 11 million illegals like the final solution is it.
I don't really have a problem with this program IF they seal the border and put restrictions and free medical and such..
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